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Comment by VladRussian | Hacker News Reader

>if I had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance.

care to elaborate how your talking would help then?

Telling them something like "Yes, I saw the girl ride by on her bike this morning while I was getting the mail--I don't know the exact time but I usually go get the mail around 10ish", or "Sorry, Officer, but I was indoors most of the day and don't recall seeing anyone go by" or similar things helps me because it makes me fit into the herd (the rest of the neighborhood).

Being the only person who won't make such a simple statement is practically shouting out "INVESTIGATE ME! I SHOULD BE A MAIN SUSPECT!". At the very least that will lead to considerable hassle and expense.

Finding out afterwards that you're the last person to see her doesn't have as much upside as you think it does.

Again, with this scenario you don't realize they have a security video of her a mile away at 10ish. You actually saw a different girl, but since you testified you saw her at 10 at a certain location and they have proof she wasn't there, that proves you are lying and have something to hide. Clearly you are the killer who has inserted himself into the investigation with the goal of misleading them.

What do you mean "again"? That's your scenario and it and even its variations are rare. In the likely scenario, you stand out like a sore thumb every single time.

Whenever this comes up on HN, I find the pattern of comments to be a little baffling, in that very few people want to acknowledge that there are significant downsides to this.

One that isn't mentioned is that, frankly, I don't trust cops nearly as much as you'all seem to. I've been in dodgy situations with cops. I've been pulled over by cops on a dark, out of the way road, and it made me nervous. There is zero chance I'm not cooperating with him as much as I can under those circumstances.

I believe that would be a good case for driving the normal speed until you get to a well lit area. If you want, get out your phone and inform the police of your intent.

I would never pull over on a "dark, out of the way road".

That could get you arrested: http://www.insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyId=371

Might be why I've heard the advice of informing 911 of the situation. They would tell the police officer, and everything would probably be ok.

> Mary Ann Viverette, the President of the International Association of Cheifs of Police [...] but she also thinks Karen was smart to follow her instincts in that situation.

This is exactly what the police would say to get you to talk!

Indeed. Notable from that video is the fact that the police may lie to you when trying to get you to talk. Is general many of these things sound like reasonable law enforcement rights to me, but not that one.

First off, the issue is not how it would help them, it is how it would help you. And tzs explained how it would help you: it would keep the investigators from getting suspicious of you, and possibly making your life harder.

As an aside, it would also help the investigators, by not distracting them with irrelevant suspicious behavior.

i guess you didn't watch the youtube link flying around. Otherwise you'd understand how slight mistake in your talking - you washed your car on Tuesday, not on Wednesday 3 weeks ago - would _help_ you in that investigation and "keep the investigators from getting suspicious of you".

>As an aside, it would also help the investigators, by not distracting them with irrelevant suspicious behavior.

and that too.

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